Why Taking A Holiday Won't Ruin Your Fitness Progress

You've been super diligent with your diet and smashing the gym in prep for your trip. You've booked your flights, checked your passport is still in date, ordered a new swimsuit; you're all set to go and escape the grind of every day life. But then you hear that little invasive voice in the back of your head... "What if I lose all my progress?"

Holiday season is upon us and it’s at this time of year that I start overhearing comments that sound a little like this:

“I’m going to be so heavy when I get back after all the food I’ll have eaten!”

“My hotel doesn’t have a gym so I’m a bit worried I’m going to lose all my strength?”

“I’ll try and be good but I might cave and have a few drinks while I’m away…”

If this is you then please, stop right there! Holidays are one of life’s greatest joys and I’m willing to bet you’ve worked your cute little backside off in the run up to this holiday you’ve got planned, so you deserve a break and I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely okay to take a week off - even two! So stop stressing. You have my permission, as a personal trainer, to go and enjoy your holiday without restriction, without guilt, without even hunting down a gym while you’re there.

Here’s why…

1. You will not lose muscle if you don’t train for a week. Whilst the term use it or lose it is true in the case of muscle, it won’t happen as fast as you may think - you can actually go as long as two weeks without training before your muscle mass will start to dwindle, and even then it will happen very slowly. If you were chronically under-eating as well as not training your body may begin to break down muscle tissues faster to use it as an energy source, but this is rare, and especially unlikely on holiday if you’re doing it right!

2. Cardio is a little different. If you were training for an endurance race or competition such as a marathon or Hyrox, you want to be undertaking cardio training every 4-5 days to maintain your performance, otherwise regressions can begin occur. But of course, even then it won’t all go overnight, regressions are slow and steady - so a week’s holiday will barely set you back. If you’ve been hitting it hard, your body will likely thank you for the extra rest.

3. Use holidays as a diet break. Regardless of which end of the spectrum you’ve been on - implementing a calorie deficit to lose body fat or implementing a calorie surplus to pack on muscle, taking a week off worrying about your diet all the time can give you mental peace and physical rest, as well as allowing your hormones a chance to resettle. You’ll likely find you have a renewed adherence to your diet when you come back from holiday too. If you do come back from holiday and your weight has gone up, it’s worth noting that some of this weight will likely be water retention from consuming more carbs, salty foods, and alcohol than usual, rather than body fat - so don’t panic, the number will come back down once you’re back into routine.

4. The body needs rest. We’re not designed to go, go, go, 365 days a year! In order for you to continue working and performing at your best you need to give yourself time off occasionally. After a few months of intensive training your recovery will start to slow down even if you’re doing all the right things (sleeping, eating well, taking rest days, etc). Every 3-4 months it’s advisable to take a 'deload' week involving either reducing your training intensity such as cutting back weights by 25%, lowering training frequency, or my personal preference: taking a week off entirely to fully reset. I often find I come back to training stronger after a deload week. 

5. You won’t gain that much weight in one week of enjoying yourself. In order to lose 1lb of body fat you need to be consuming 500 calories less than your maintenance every day for a whole week - e.g if your maintenance calories are 2,500, you’d need to eat 2,000 every day for a week to lose 1lb of fat. The opposite is also true - to gain 1lb of fat you need to consume 500 calories MORE than your maintenance, so using the same example this would mean 3,000 calories EVERY DAY FOR A WEEK. Is this doable in one week of holiday? If you’re anything like me and love food and drink on your jollies then yes, absolutely. But in the grand scheme of your life, if you gain 1lb of body fat whilst having a fantastic holiday and creating lifelong memories, is that the end of the world? Probably not. Can you lose that 1lb again in a week if you want to? Yes for sure. Read that again.

Holidays that involve activities such as hiking, sightseeing by foot, swimming, or sports are fantastic for helping to maintain your weight and fitness levels whilst you’re away as these styles of holiday can help to keep your energy expenditure high and offset any additional calories you end up consuming. This is especially true if you have quite a sedentary lifestyle normally. Many of my clients who work office jobs during the week actually come back from holiday lighter, despite enjoying all of their favourite foods without restriction, and this is down to spending more time moving and being on their feet. That said, if your preferred vacation involves laying out in the sun and not moving for hours on end, then for all of the reasons mentioned above, I strongly encourage you to do this.

Life is for living. Work hard, play hard. Enjoy!

Stay happy, stay healthy.

Jay x

If you found this article useful, why not share it with a friend?